Compiling and breaking down as many stats as possible for the LSU Fighting Tigers Baseball Team.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

LSU Baseball Stats vs Auburn Game 1 (3/23/2013)

Decent game for the Tigers last night. The offense was sharp and the pitching did what it had to do to protect the lead it was given.

The offense got rolling in the bottom of the first with hits by Mark Laird and Alex Bregman. Raph Rhymes blasted his first home run on the year next, giving LSU a three run lead to start the game. Mason Katz hit his 10th home run of the year in the 3rd inning, a two run line drive home run over the left field fence. Christian Ibarra hit a two RBI single in the 5th which scored Bregman and Rhymes. LSU would get two more runs in the top of the 8th. Jacoby Jones scored on a wild pitch and Mason Katz hit an RBI single to score Alex Bregman.

Alex Bregman and Mason Katz continue to swing a hot bats for the Tigers. In the last five games, Bregman is hitting 0.417/0.462/0.583, has scored 6 runs, and driven in four. Mason Katz is hitting a gaudy 0.375/0.545/1.125 in the last five games with four home runs and 8 RBI.

Aaron Nola got into some tough situations during the game, but was never really in trouble because the offense gave him such a large cushion. Nola pitched 6 2/3 against Auburn, giving up two earned runs on nine hits. He consistently threw strikes with a 67.6 strike percentage. Nola also struck out nine batters and threw 105 pitches on the night, definitely not his most efficient performance of the year. His ERA for the season is now 3.29 and he has a WHIP of 0.991.

The bullpen was inconsistent. Brent Bonvillain faced two batters, inducing a ground out to one and walking the other, who would eventually score. Nick Rumbelow was not very sharp against the four batters he faced. Rumbelow gave up a double and walked in a run before being relieved by Joey Bourgeois. Bourgeois threw four pitches to two batters, getting one to fly out and the other to ground out. Bourgeois has been LSU's strongest middle reliever so far this season, so we should continue to see him in tough spots when LSU needs an out. Berry closed the game, and gave up a double and an RBI single before retiring the next three batters he faced.